What is a minimum wage?

Since the MM trial there has been a lot of speculation about the income threshold being reduced to the minimum wage after Justice Blake's suggestion in his ruling in July last year(2013).

“…to set the figure significantly higher than even the £13,400 gross annual wage effectively denies young people and many thousands of low-wage earners in full time employment the ability to be joined by their non-EEA spouses from abroad "

When the case was heard at the Court of Appeal at the beginning of March 2014 
BritCits coverage
J M Wilson Solicitors review

The Judges in the hearing were also considering how the cases of Quila and Bibi (minimum spouse visa age challenge) would inform their decisions as well as how article 8 and article 14 are enacted into English Law.

So with that in mind the minimum wage chosen should be one that does not discriminate on grounds of age or it could be challenged under the same principles as Quila and Bibi case.

But life is not always simple and different people work different hours. 

So what hours are considered to be working full time?  

This would have a big impact on what the minimum annual wage is. To be a true minimum wage it would have to be the minimum hours that the Government regards as being full time employment.
So should it be the 30 hours minimum that the Government regard as being full time employment under their working tax credits rules? This would be the fairest and limit the number of people discriminated against, especially older people or people with health conditions that want to work but find it impossible to work very long hours. 
Choosing an average instead of the minimum would statistically mean that 49 % of working people could be working less than that chosen figure so could risk being discriminated against on economic or health grounds. As well as which average do you use?

With these points in mind we put together a table to illustrate what are the differences in a minimum wage.

Notes

1) What is a living wage?   

http://www.livingwage.org.uk/

2)  48 Hours Max working hours per week  set in the EU Working Time Directive

3)  min working hour per week to be classed as working full time as used by working tax credits  = 30 hours

4) 40 hours per week is regarded as the number of hours before overtime is paid.

5) Full-time employees in the UK work an average of 42.7 hours a week compared to the EU average of 37.4 hours, according to the Office for National Statistics.   

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2011/dec/08/uk-employees-work-third-longest-hours

So in conclusion any 18-20 year old, on the national minimum wage, who was married to a Non-Eu national would not be able to work enough hours to reach even the level suggested by Justice Blake

£10462.40p would be the maximum they would be able to earn if their boss did not allow overtime